Super-Appification:
Conglomeration in the Global Digital Economy
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📂Super Apps and Conglomeration ‘Super apps’ are on the rise. This study explores the characteristics, origins, and manifestations of these apps worldwide, presenting the concept of ‘super-appification’ to describe processes of conglomeration in the global digital economy. Super apps aim to become deeply integrated into people’s everyday lives, capturing and monetising essential activities. By analysing 41 super apps, we identify four distinct types of ‘super-app constellations’, showcasing different patterns and dynamics of conglomeration: ‘Swiss-Army Knife’ apps that consolidate services in one app, ‘Family’ apps that expand through subsidiaries, and ‘Host’ and ‘Hub’-style apps that leverage external developers. This typology offers a comprehensive understanding of the conglomeration patterns underpinning the rise of super apps, involving corporate, development and international expansion strategies. Ultimately, super-appification represents an intensified form of ‘appification’, as these apps increasingly pervade and commodify various aspects of everyday life, such as payment, insurance, grocery delivery, mobility and travel, with significant sociopolitical implications.
🏷super apps 🏷appification 🏷conglomeration 🏷app constellations 🏷app ecosystems 🏷app studies 🏷platform studies
📋 ✍Cite
| 📋Cite (APA) | van der Vlist, F. N., Helmond, A., Dieter, M. J., & Weltevrede, E. J. T. (2024). Super-Appification: Conglomeration in the Global Digital Economy. New Media & Society, 0(0): 1–24. SAGE Publications. DOI: 10.1177/14614448231223419. |
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| 🔗Link (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231223419 |
| Kind | Journal Article; Original Research Article |
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| Author | F. N. van der Vlist; A. Helmond; M. J. Dieter; E. J. T. Weltevrede |
| Designer | F. N. van der Vlist |
| Publication Date | 2024, January 10 [first published online] |
| Journal | New Media & Society (NM&S) |
| Volume | 0 |
| Issue | 0 |
| Pages | 1–24 (24) |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (London, United Kingdom) |
| Identifier | 10.1177/14614448231223419 [self]; 1461-4448 [part of]; 1461-7315 [part of]; SPI.2021.001 [funded by]; 262513311 [funded by]; VI.Veni.191C.048 [funded by] |
| License | CC BY-ND 4.0 |
| Data Availability | The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the Open Science Framework (OSF) at https://doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/fetps. |